Author: Tom Wicker
Interview: Blanche McIntyre
Interview: Rick Bland
Most writers and actors would claim personal investment in the projects they undertake. But few could do so with the same legitimacy as Rick Bland, whose first stab at play-writing, dark comedy Thick, almost bankrupted him when the Arts Council refused to fund an eight-week tour of the USA in … Continue Reading Interview: Rick Bland
Disco Pigs
This production of Enda Walsh’s dazzling early play Disco Pigs begins with a discomfiting antagonism between audience and stage. A pinch-faced girl sticks her head out from behind a sheet and snorts at our heels as we take our seats. Nearby, a boy thrusts a crackling cassette player into our faces, his … Continue Reading Disco Pigs
The God of Soho
Towards the end of Raz Shaw’s production of Chris Hannan’s new play, Clem (Iris Roberts) shrugs off her clothes and proudly stands naked on the Globe stage. It’s a surprising move, but there was a bigger reaction from the audience to the shocked gasp of “Oh my God” that rang … Continue Reading The God of Soho
Bernarda Alba
Katherine Hare’s assured production of Michael John LaChiusa’s musical adaptation of Gabriel Garcia Lorca’s The House of Bernarda Alba – first staged in New York in 2006 – combines beautiful choreography, clever staging and full-blooded performances to strike a shattering emotional note that never seems strained. Antonio María Benavides, scourge of serving … Continue Reading Bernarda Alba
Interview: Ben Occhipinti
Never work with children or animals, so the old showbiz adage goes. Although youth theatre organisation ‘The Company’ has not yet attempted to bring an elephant on stage, it has spent the four years of its existence successfully challenging the idea that doing a show with young people is a … Continue Reading Interview: Ben Occhipinti
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
This conceptually muddled production of Shakespeare’s enduring comedy successfully realises Theseus’s smugly affluent court on the first-floor terrace of the plush Bermondsey Square Hotel, but fudges the crucial distinction between city and countryside. Problems start with director Jayne Dickinson’s choice of ’70s fashion for every character except the fairies (dressed … Continue Reading A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Alma Mater
Empty rooms and family photos are reminders of things past, good and bad, now silent and packed away. It’s this sense of loss that Fish & Game’s haunting second piece captures so beautifully, weaving technology into dark fairytale. Given an iPad and headphones, you’re placed, alone, before a closed door. … Continue Reading Alma Mater
Around the World in Eighty Days / The Mother
Steam Industry Free Theatre returns to open-air venue The Scoop with a double-bill themed ‘Dangerous Journeys’. Performing Brecht’s Marxist rallying-cry ‘The Mother’ in the shadow of the gleaming Ernst & Young building is satisfyingly cheeky. But family musical ‘Around the World in Eighty Days’ travels the distance between past and … Continue Reading Around the World in Eighty Days / The Mother
Interview: Kate Bailey, curator of Five Truths at the V&A
If the name “Victoria and Albert Museum” only conjures up images of classical statues and hordes of tourists admiring sumptuous dresses, trinkets and paintings from the past, prepare to be surprised this month; because if you venture away from the hubbub of marble-lined hallways and beyond the stately dazzle of … Continue Reading Interview: Kate Bailey, curator of Five Truths at the V&A
Interview: producer/actress Amy Tez
Loyalty
We feast on political memoirs, greedily devouring their tales of what went on behind closed doors while the flashbulbs of the press were pinging outside. When seasoned with events that have sparked public outrage, their appeal is irresistible. And recently there has been no greater touchstone for the people’s distrust … Continue Reading Loyalty
The Tempest
Principal Theatre Company’s winning run of outdoor summer Shakespeare continues with a spellbinding version of ‘The Tempest’. Paul Gladwin has skilfully navigated the play’s darker undercurrents to produce a child-friendly, laughter-filled show that stays on the right side of pantomime. Rupert Wickham is a stern but not unbending Prospero; raging … Continue Reading The Tempest
For Services Rendered
Melancholy pervades James Bounds’ heartfelt revival of Somerset Maugham’s tale of a wealthy family struggling to adapt in the aftermath of the Great War, which has left Sydney, the only son, blind. The diffuse yellow light that plays across the set, a country-house conservatory, evokes a summer’s day drawing to … Continue Reading For Services Rendered
Interview: Jos Vantyler
Actor Jos Vantyler’s personality fills the room as soon as he enters the Marylebone coffee shop where I’m waiting for him. Sporting shades and wearing a blue linen shirt and white trousers, he’s effortlessly cool and charming on one of the hottest days of the year. This is his local … Continue Reading Interview: Jos Vantyler
Lullaby
It’s night time. The gaze of the man on the other side of the aisle from me keeps straying from his girlfriend, who’s lying beside him, to the pair of women cuddled up together in the next bed. Behind him, two gay men rearrange their pillows and pull up the … Continue Reading Lullaby